Taylor's body

[koganbot]

Nitsuh writes: "One reason I wouldn't want to be a film critic......is that they're working in an area where it's a legitimate part of the job to describe and comment on people's appearances, and how we might feel about looking at them." (Etc.)

Tom replies: "Is it not a legitimate part of a pop critic's job?" (Etc

Comments

[alexmacpherson]

I am kind of boggling that anyone could find describing or commenting on people's appearances genuinely discomfiting. Such hang-ups. Assessing how others present themselves visually is a CRUCIAL PART OF CULTURE. Of LIFE. How do these people function.

[alexmacpherson]

(I sometimes think that it'd do rock critics a LOT OF GOOD to just read a ton of good fashion journalism for a week. REALLY now.)

[mostlyconnect]

I don't know though - we're talking about talking in print which is a funny sort of one-to-many conversation - if your readers can't even agree on what sort of genitals it is desirable to have, you are going to be losing them quite fast! It's very different from commenting on someone's appearance in a controlled face-to-face environment.

[katstevens]

Yes, judging on appearances is part of culture, but (for women at least) it often ends up being the ONLY basis upon which you are judged.

Basically dude this is a massive can of feminist worms. I may try and open it and count up said worms at some point.

[askbask]

I reviewed Shakira's She Wolf and certainly couldn't avoid talking about the 'She Wolf' video and Shakira's acrobatics. It got a few giggles from friends, but the way Shakira takes so explicitly (and in the video, visually) control of her sexuality is definitely at the core of her artistry. And so it is with others. Of course.

[koganbot]

I reviewed Shakira's She Wolf

Would you be willing to link it?

[askbask]

Well, sure, you can use it to brush up on your Norwegian ;)

http://studvest.no/kultur.php?seksjon=anmeldelser&art_id=11535

[koganbot]

Well, here's what Google translator has to say (I'm curious what you think of its accuracy; I'm amazed that a translation program can function at all, language and idioms being so complex).

Wolves in a few clothes

"I do not know where I am colored by this experience" - I love that. Is that Norwegian idiom, or just a mistranslation? I wish I could talk about how an experience colors me.

One reason Shakira's own English is so original is that I think in her head she's still fundamentally thinking in Spanish, and doesn't have a full grasp of Anglo-American clichés. On Laundry Service she sang, "There's nothing like your smile made of sun," which is vastly better than if she'd said (as an American would have) "There's nothing like your sunny smile."

Of course she is an original anyway, imagining herself as a werewolf in a closet!

Here was my review of Laundry Service, before I'd even seen her belly dancing and her ass wiggling free and independent of the rest of her torso.